Who gets frustrated when someone says…
“I wish someone in school taught me…”
“to do my taxes.”
“to jumpstart my car.”
“to apply for a loan.”
And then follows up with…”at least I know mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.”
In agriculture education, we have this unique ability through our diverse curriculum and endless opportunities in FFA to fill this void in foundational academic knowledge and real-world application.
My FFA chapter combated this void by implementing a semester-long event called ADULTING 101.
This monthly activity allowed students to learn real-world skills, such as jumpstarting a car, using ratchet straps, doing their laundry, checking oil/tire pressure in a vehicle, canning produce, applying for a loan, etc.
So how did we implement the event…
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LIVING TO SERVE GRANT: Participants of the Adulting 101 workshops received supplies necessary to utilize the new skills they learned - jumper cables, ratchet straps, laundry baskets/detergent, tire gauges, canning kits. Spring Semester Living to Serve Grants open mid-December. Read about filling out these grants in the Paying for the POA blog post.
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FIND SPEAKERS: After officers determined their topics and budget, they found individuals to lead the workshops. Sometimes these speakers were upperclassmen who were experts on the topic, sometimes they were community members and other times they were teachers in the building. The speakers’ schedules determined the date and topic each month for the workshops.
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CREATE A SIGN-UP SHEET: My officers used a Google form to create a sign-up sheet for students. This Google form was sent out to high school students a week before the workshop and announcements were made during morning announcements so students would check their email and sign-up. Our budget and the room the workshop was conducted in would determine the number of students who were allowed to register.
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CONDUCT THE WORKSHOP: My school had a Wildcat Time (similar to homeroom) for the last 30 minutes of each day. Workshops were conducted during this period once per month and students learned about the topics from the expert speakers. Students left the workshop with a handout summarizing how to complete the newly learned skill and a giveaway so they could instantly begin to utilize these new skills.
This event was highly attended by over 200 students and was one of the events on our National Chapter Award application when our chapter was selected as a National Models of Excellence top 10 chapter in the nation.
Good luck in implementing this event into your POA and reach out to info@owlsnestresources.com with any questions!